PERHAPS the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.
As a long and violent abuse of power is generally the means of calling the right of it in question, (and in matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry,) and as the king of England hath undertaken in his own right, to support the parliament in what he calls theirs, and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpations of either.
In the following sheets, the author hath studiously avoided every thing which is personal among ourselves. Compliments as well as censure to individuals make no part thereof. The wise and the worthy need not the triumph of a pamphlet; and those whose sentiments are injudicious or unfriendly, will cease of themselves, unless too much pains is bestowed upon their conversion.
The cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all lovers of mankind are affected, and in the event of which, their affections are interested. The laying a country desolate with fire and sword, declaring war against the natural rights of all mankind, and extirpating the defenders thereof from the face of the earth, is the concern of every man to whom nature hath given the power of feeling; of which class, regardless of party censure, is
THE AUTHOR.
Philadelphia, Feb. 14, 1776.
Ah, remember the days when this was IP's blog and not B's?
There are more than a 100 blogs on this site. I've only made 133 posts. IP has made more than 4000. This is still his blog. I encourage you to start your blog and make posts. It is actually fun and can be somewhat therapeutic. If you appreciate a certain blogger's style, you should encourage them to post and comment more. I tend to blog heavily in short batches and do not have any desire to change that pattern. I suspect traffic picks up when there are more active discussion threads. Heck, if I get tired of monitoring the blog when I am actively blogging, I can't imagine what it's like to monitor this site day in and day out for years and years.
Of the last 10 posts, other posters have submitted 7 of them. Nothing would make me happier than to see more post and more registered commenters. I think anonymous blogging is fine, but it is better when people register a moniker. Even though you don't know who you're talking to, you know who you're talking to. : )
Man that dude "The Author" can lay down some word.
"IP has made more than 4000."
4000+ posts since January 1, 2005? (I won't even try to count the comments.....)
Sorry that I've been slow this month, but I think I've earned it. :-)
Heh. Nice stuff.
If you liked the idea of anonymous blogging, you might also enjoy this little contentious thread about scrapple (yes, the pig product) from the New York Times in 1872. (The link is to a modern New York Times page discussing it.)
As the article puts it, "By the fifth day, most letters paid only lip service to scrapple. The frugal nature of the dish became an opportunity to hold forth on everything from the rising cost of living to women’s ruinous spending habits."
People, not changed all THAT much over time!
It seems the NYT failed to appreciate what was really interesting to people. : ) Given the popularity of the internet, and a users access to disintermediated content, we're seeing some very interesting trends and conventional media scambling to adjust.
If only back in 1872 they had a local food blog to discuss scrapple.